The paper seeks to identify the source of the risk premium in real interest rate differentials across European countries. In particular, the link between real interest rate differentials existing between various European countries and Germany, and domestic fiscal policy as proxied by the Debt/GDP ratios in these countries is examined. Results provide strong evidence that this variable exerts a significant influence on the determination of both the level and the volatility of the differential for both long-term and short-term interest rates. This is a noteworthy result bearing in mind the Maastricht criteria for European Monetary Union and the importance attached to convergence of Debt/GDP ratios.

Recent advances in Hepatitis C therapeutics offer the possibility of cure but will be expensive. The cost of treatment may be partially offset by the avoidance of advanced liver disease. We performed a micro-costing study of the ambulatory healthcare utilisation of patients with Hepatitis C supplemented with inpatient diagnosis related group costs.

tThough relatively small, the subprime mortgage-backed securitiesmarket is often identified as the source of the crisis that sweptthrough the U.S. financial system from 2007 onwards. We investi-gate if its role in the propagation of the crisis was due to contagionor interdependence. Using a Markov-switching VAR with time-varying transition probabilities, we analyse the transmission ofshocks across the financial system. We find little evidence of assetcorrelation changes between normal and crisis regimes and thosethat do occur are predominantly associated with liquidity vari-ables. Otherwise, relationships are stable across market conditions,implying that the U.S. financial crisis was due to cross-marketinterdependencies rather than contagion. There is limited evidencethat the deteriorating quality of the underlying assets can explainthe transition from ‘normal’ market conditions to a high-volatilityregime, although this is not consistent across model specifications.

We develop a tactical asset allocation strategy that incorporates the effects of macroeconomic
variables. The joint distribution of financial asset returns and the macroeconomic variables is modelled
using a VAR with a multivariate GARCH (M-GARCH) error structure. As a result, the portfolio
frontier is time varying and subject to contagion from the macroeconomic variable. Optimal asset
allocation requires that this be taken into account. We illustrate how to do this using three risky UK
assets and inflation as a macroeconomic factor. Taking account of inflation generates portfolio frontiers
that lie closer to the origin and offers investors superior risk–return combinations.

This paper investigates the impact of tourism flows on demand for large regional and city theatres in Austria over the period from 1972 to 2011 (39 years). The results are obtained by applying an aggregated theatre demand function for both residents and tourists. The elasticity of theatre attendance in response to tourism is estimated along with other standard demand variables such as ticket price and income. The quality factors and theatre-specific effects are also included. The tourism flows variables are derived using detailed data set on tourist arrivals and their overnight counts, and they are also split between domestic and foreign tourists. To measure the impact of tourism flows on theatre demand, three alternative theatre markets specifications are considered. The total elasticity of attendance per capita in response to tourism is estimated between 15 and 20 %, indicating that increasing the number of arrivals by two tourists per resident in the relevant market would generat...

We construct and develop a new financial market stress index using twenty-three headline UK financial data series. A logistic regression framework provides a parsimonious representation of financial market stress in the UK based on the market dynamics around the time of Bank of England crisis-alleviating economic interventions. Our results present clear evidence that the Bank of England’s swift and decisive actions stemmed financial market stress as measured by the stress index.

This research examines the effects of sovereign downgrades on European financial markets between 2005 and 2012. Vector Autoregression (VAR) techniques are used to investigate the presence of contagion effects after a sovereign downgrade across equity indices, five year Credit Default Swaps (CDS) and ten year government bonds of the investigated European states. Sovereign downgrades are found to be associated with an increase in equity returns, and cause significant increases in the cost of insuring debt through CDS and the yield of government debt. The Greek and Irish downgrades are to found to have significant reverberations throughout European financial markets. German CDS spreads are found to increase when a European state is downgraded, signalling their use by investors as a barometer of European-wide defaults. Though credit rating agencies clearly missed the European sovereign crisis prior to 2007, their rating downgrades are still found to cause significant effects within Euro...

This study examines the effects that Contracts for Difference (CFDs) have had on the Australian equity market, either as an accelerant for mispricing, or as a source of increased market functionality through the addition of a new tradable product and increased liquidity. The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) made the decision to segregate CFDs to a separate ring-fenced exchange in November 2007. This study uses EGARCH techniques to test for the effects of CFDs on return volatility at the time of CFD inclusion and segregation in Australian equity markets at the index and equity-specific level. A fully worked explanation and example of a CFD-influenced ‘overhang’ is also provided. The results provide evidence that cannot reject the presence of ‘overhangs’ in Australian equity markets

Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) have existed since the late 1980s, but were first traded on commodity markets in the early 2000s. Their inception has been linked by some market analysts with the large commodity price increases and volatility evident between 2007 and 2009. This research analyses forty-four ETFs across seventeen commodity markets and focuses on the role that the product has played, either as an accelerant for mispricing in international commodity markets, or as a
mechanism for liquidity improvements, thereby increasing the speed of the transfer of information. An EGARCH model is used to investigate whether the volatility and liquidity effects are more pronounced in larger or smaller sized commodity markets. The results indicate that larger marketproportional ETF holdings are associated with higher EGARCH volatility. Smaller commodity markets are found to have increased liquidity flows, indicating benefits from ETF investment. The findings in this paper support calls for ...

This research constructs and develops a financial stress index based on European financial markets. The integration of numerous sovereign states has created difficulty identifying stress in any one single financial component, but incorporating twenty-three headline European stress indicators across equities, bonds and currencies, in terms of both spreads and levels offer substantial explanatory benefits. The incorporation of a logistical framework specifically analysing the levels, volatility and co-movement of the included standardised series enables the creation of an index that adequately represents financial market stress in European. Using periods of pre-defined crisis in a logistic regression framework also aids the development of the index. The results provide evidence that the European-specific sovereign crises from 2010 to present, with particular emphasis on the mid-2011 period, have significantly over-shadowed any event that the financially-integrated Europe has previousl...

For multi-national companies, assessment of energy improvement projects across a global site-base requires a thorough understanding of the driving factors affecting energy consumption on each site. Traditionally, assessment is performed on the basis of single site-level audits. These audits provide quantitative metrics for the implementation of energy improvement projects such as economics (capital cost, operating costs, return on investment, net present value) and energy/greenhouse gas reductions. However, audits do not typically assess, holistically for all sites, metrics concerning the three levels of abstraction namely system, facility and global. In order to improve effectiveness of capital spending in terms of corporate social responsibility (CSR), sustainability, business continuity and return on investment, it is necessary to develop standardised approaches for auditing sites across a global sitebase. Within this context, Boston Scientific, a leading multinational medical de...

In 2000 the central government in Ireland introduced a formula-based needs and resources
equalisation model in its local government system to ensure that the allocation
of general purpose grants to local authorities was done in an equitable manner.
However, the equalisation model is lacking in transparency, with few details
publicly available as to its exact specification. Within this context, the
purpose of this paper is to critically assess fiscal equalisation in Ireland s
local government system. More specifically we address the question of whether
general purpose equalisation grants bear any relation to expenditure needs and
fiscal resources. We achieve this by estimating our own model based upon a
number of indicators of potential need and available resources.Â We outline a number of alternative
equalisation models based on different objective criteria, and compare the
simulated allocations resulting from the alternative models to the actual general
purpose grants, with a view...

Since its establishment by the Treaty of Rome in 1958, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has had a huge impact on the agricultural sector in Europe and more widely. The original CAP altered production incentives, distorting input and output markets. The CAP has undergone a number of reforms, most recently the Fischler reform in 2003 which sought to remove the link between production and farm income support payments. Chapter 1 of this thesis offers some background on the Common Agricultural Policy and outlines the thesis. The move to `decoupled' payments, and its impact on land rental markets, is the focus of Chapters 2 and 3 of this thesis. In October 2011, the European Commission published proposals for further CAP reform (European Commission, 2011). At the heart of the proposals were reforms to the way in which Pillar I income support subsidies were distributed (both between Member States and between farmers within each Member State) and the linking of Pillar I direct inc...

To examine the drivers of small- and
medium-sized enterprise (SME) growth, we adopt a
holistic multivariate modelling approach, integrating
macroeconomic determinants with the internal (firm
characteristics and firm strategy) drivers more commonly
investigated in firm growth studies. Utilising such an
extended set of variables addresses a gap in the extant
firm growth literature in relation to external growth
factors, offering novel insights on the seeming randomness
of firm growth. Our system generalised method of
moments estimation results indicate that the macroeconomic
environment influences firm growth both directly
and indirectly. Based on the study of manufacturing
SME growth in Ireland, our findings provide evidence
on the integrated effects of macroeconomic conditions,
firm characteristics and firm strategy for SME growth.
They also highlight, from a theoretical perspective, the
need to acknowledge the multidimensional nature of
SME growth.PUBLISHEDpeer-reviewed

The problem of finding an optimum using noisy evaluations of a smooth cost function arises in many contexts, including economics, business, medicine, experiment design, and foraging theory. We derive an asymptotic bound E[ (x_t - x*)^2 ] >= O(1/sqrt(t)) on the rate of convergence of a sequence (x_0, x_1, >...) generated by an unbiased feedback process observing noisy evaluations of an unknown quadratic function maximised at x*. The bound is tight, as the proof leads to a simple algorithm which meets it. We further establish a bound on the total regret, E[ sum_{i=1..t} (x_i - x*)^2 ] >= O(sqrt(t)) These bounds may impose practical limitations on an agent's performance, as O(eps^-4) queries are made before the queries converge to x* with eps accuracy.

For many years, geographers have concerned themselves with
the spatial dimension of economic development and with the
fact that the pattern of development, whether it occurs under
capitalist or socialist regimes, tends to result in a clustered
form associated with urban centres (Bryant, 1984). Rural
regions have tended to lag, both socially and economically,
giving rise to rural-to-urban migration in search of economic
opportunities. In recent years, however, it is interesting to
note that the reverse pattern of movement has been in vogue
in many developed industrial nations, giving rise to such terms
as 'population turnaround' and 'counterurbanisation' (Cloke,
1985).

This paper discusses the use of the finite capacity planning model as a basis for a job-shop
scheduling system. The suitability of this approach for constructing short term schedules
with very short lead times is examined. This paper introduces a rule-based scheduling
system whose operation, unlike previous monolithic schedulers, is based around distinct
though interlinked processes. Scheduling herein is defined as the selection of a set of orders
for manufacture, and the allocation of processing time to each on an acyclic network of
processing resources. The objectives are, firstly, compliance with all customer deadlines
and, secondly, the efficient utilisation of available machine time and prevailing machine
setups.

The full text of this article will not be available on ULIR until the embargo expires on the 4/1/2018We investigate the relationship between household debt and income inequality in the USA, allowing for asymmetry, using data over the period 1913-2008. We find evidence of an asymmetric cointegration between household debt and inequality for different regimes. Our results indicate household debt only responds to positive changes in income inequality, while there is no evidence of falling inequality significantly affecting household debt. The presence of this asymmetry provides further empirical insights into the emerging literature on household debt and inequality.ACCEPTEDpeer-reviewed

In 2016 the HSE (the Executive) provided funding of €3.6bn approximately to circa 2,300 agencies for the
delivery of a range of health and personal social services, of which approximately €0.714bn was provided to
310 Section 39 agencies (hereafter referred to as the “Provider”) who were in receipt of funding in excess of
€250,000.
To underpin the funding received, these Providers are required to enter into a formal Service Arrangement with
the Executive. The Service Arrangement is the contract between the Executive and each individual Provider
and comprises the Part 1 general terms and conditions of the Service Arrangement and the Part 2 Schedules
prepared on an annual basis that specify the services to be delivered, budget, staffing, quality and safety
requirements, monitoring requirements, etc. for each separate funding arrangement under the Service
Arrangement. Providers are obliged under this Service Arrangement to give certain undertakings in relation to
compliance with a range...

This PhD thesis explores the interactions between migration, home ownership and immigrant integration in Ireland. The thesis is presented on a paper based model, the core of which consists of three empirical studies. The first study develops a simple framework for incorporating the demographic determinants of housing demand into a standard housing-demand model. It also augments the existing time-series and cross-national literatures with a cross-county panel on the Irish housing market. The second study explores the causal links from home ownership to community engagement. In the years prior to the recent economic crisis, Ireland experienced a large increase in its foreign-born population. We hypothesise that households headed by the foreign-born are less likely to own a home, thus potentially hindering the process of social integration. But also that home ownership can be differentially effective in fostering the integration of the foreign-born. We first explore the relationship be...

The present era of ’flexible accumulation’ and crisis is widely seen to
have engendered distinctive changes in the labour process. The analysis presented
here explores the ways in which these transformations are experienced
and absorbed by hourly wage workers at an aluminium plant in the United States.
Of particular interest are the distinct meanings the workers attach to different
managerial innovations; thus, the reordering of shift arrangements provokes
worker response (and union action) that is quite different from the reaction
inspired by the introduction of cooperative worker-management teams at the
plant. Using classical Marxian analytical categories, it may be said that the
current regimen of workplace control involves some combination of absolute
and relative surplus value strategies. By disaggregating this mix of strategies,
these workers’ narratives help cast some light on the currently raging debate
about whether or not we are living in an age of globalization and epocha...

In this article, I examine a community psychiatric nurse's highly commodified
descriptions of the activities and interests of two clients of a mental hospital in rural
Ireland. These examples show an intimate relationship between a discourse of
economics and a discourse of rationality that can also be discovered in sources
connected to the history of Ireland's mental hospital system. Using these and other
connections, I argue that the distinctive utilitarian rationality associated with
modernity, as well as reactions to it, can be promulgated and maintained at a local
level through means other than economic markets. At the same time, I explain how
the mental hospital now has a place within a local moral world. These two insights
provide a novel perspective on a venerable debate in social scientific work on
Ireland (and, by implication, many other peripheral areas of the global economy),
that is, if, how, and in what respects the place has "modernized." [asylums, ...

Foreign study is an emerging trend in the education market. Increasingly, students choose to leave their home country to study abroad. This decision is not only coupled with financial and time costs, but also involves the challenges of new cultures. This thesis examined push and pull factors, investments and expected returns on foreign education, and parental influences on the decision to study abroad for international students in one Irish university. A concurrent triangulation design was used to collect data, which involved quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis at the same time. To collect quantitative data, the research used an online questionnaire with 216 responses. In-depth semi-structured interviews were used to collect qualitative data. 24 international students agreed to be interviewed. Quantitative data results indicated that personal factors, which included satisfying language and academic requirements, were the most important factor in international s...